A Trip To The Beach
by TheCastorbean
Summary: "I'm telling you that he likes you Lu-chan!" Levy said cheerfully. The blonde snorted in disbelief, "As if." "Clueless" Erza grumbled after Lucy had gone out of earshot. "Which one?" Levy replied. "Both."


It was a hot summer day and Lucy reclined with Erza and Levy in the shade of one of the straw umbrellas set up along the edge of the beach, feet away from the sidewalk. From where they were sitting they could see several of their guild members playing volleyball not far off. Natsu and Gray had unsurprisingly taken up opposing sides in this friendly-game-turned-death-match. Loke, appearing on his own power, took up Gray's side while Lisanna joined forces with Natsu. The latter team up had caused Elfman to enter in favor of Natsu because: "SUPPORTING YOUR SISTER IS A MAN!"

Both Loke and Gray had protested this apparent unfairness and Juvia, who had been hidden behind a tree several dozen feet away, appeared to play on Gray's team after a lengthy argument between both sides that basically consisted of Natsu calling Gray a wuss, Gray returning the insult, and both of them almost coming to blows before Erza, not wanting to get up from her chair, shouted out a rather graphic warning that made both rivals instant friends.

"Honestly those idiots…" Erza grumbled as she settled back into her seat, having pushed herself up onto her elbows in order to add a menacing glare to the threat, "They can't keep quiet for more than a few minutes."

"Seriously…" Lucy agreed with an exaggerated groan.

"Judging from that response is it safe to assume that Natsu did something?" Levy asked, shifting so that she could see her blonde friend over the pages of her book. Lucy shrugged, "Just the usual, breaking and entering, eating all my food and almost burning my house down."

Levy nodded in understanding and slid her bookmark into place before putting the thick tome on the table beside her. The unstable structure almost sagged under the weight of the literature, almost. "Have either of you made a move yet?" Levy suddenly asked.

Lucy seemed to choke on nothing and sat bolt-upright in her chair. "L-Levy-chan!" the blonde cried indignantly, her cheeks coloring a dusty crimson. "Don't even try to deny it Lucy, pretty much everyone knows how you feel about each other."

"Especially after that last sleepover we had at my place" Erza added in.

As if anyone could forget that night. Erza had walked into the Fairy Tail bar, declared that the women of Fairy Tail hadn't bonded very much as of late, and called an emergency sleepover at her house, which had plenty of room. Nobody could refuse (the sword that she was clutching in her hand, which she either pulled out of habit or hadn't sheathed after breaking up a fight between Natsu and Gray just outside the guild doors, was good incentive) and she gave everyone an hour to gather their things and be in her apartment.

While the girls all went home to get their stuff Erza had remained behind to threaten the guys with death and dismemberment if they should appear anywhere near the impromptu sleepover. Lucy didn't see much point in the threat considering that guys aren't allowed in the girls dorms anyway but reasoned that there would probably be one or two stupid enough to try and eavesdrop.

It was during that sleepover that the topic of boys had come up and Cana, having a significant amount of alcohol in her system, decided it would be a good idea to question Lucy about her relationship status with Natsu. Everyone else had immediately jumped on the topic and grilled the celestial mage until she'd finally confessed to having feelings for the fire slayer. The squeals mingled with peals of laughter could probably have been heard the next town over.

"I'm not denying it…" Lucy mumbled barely loud enough for them to hear, "I told you all at that sleepover didn't I? Nothing has changed since then either."

"I'm telling you that he likes you Lu-chan!" Levy said cheerfully.

The blonde snorted in disbelief, "As if."

Lucy's eyes zeroed in on her partner as she spoke the words, just in time to see him jump and perform a perfect spike. Against her consent her eyes strayed to the defined muscles of his torso and arms, which tightened and retracted with his movement. Sweat dripped from his spiky pink hair, running in droplets down his tanned skin. Some disappeared into the waistline of his red swim trunks, which were low slung yet modest enough for her liking.

Levy watched her friend as she watched Natsu, seeing the familiar look of sad longing on the celestial mage's face. Lucy's expression suddenly turned pinched and Levy followed her line of vision back to Natsu, who was giving Lisanna a victorious one-armed hug while throwing insults at Gray from across the net.

The blonde celestial mage suddenly stood and sent a half-hearted smile at Levy before proclaiming that she was thirsty and asking both women if they wanted anything before she slipped on her bedazzled white sandals and headed toward the snack bar.

"Clueless" Erza grumbled after Lucy had gone out of earshot.

"Which one?" Levy replied.

"Both."

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Lucy sighed deeply as she waited for her strawberry smoothie to finish mixing. It would probably take a couple minutes considering the insane amount of business that the stand had so she took a seat on one of the small concrete walls that surrounded a bed of flowers nearby to wait. The sun was overwhelming and a thin sheen of sweat had coated her less than a minute after stepping out from under the safety of the shade. She ignored the heat though and instead chose to occupy her time by observing the flowers. They shone in a variety of colors and several dozen bees hopped from one to the next, gathering pollen on their legs to spread around to the others.

The blonde watched them repeatedly performing their task, trying to dig up the names of the different bee species from memories of the long walks in the garden she had often taken with her mother back when she was a child. Thinking of her mother ultimately led to thinking about her father and a hollow feeling of old pain rose up in her chest.

"Excuse me." Lucy started and jerked up to see a man standing before her. He was handsome, with neat black hair, tanned skin, and a body that one can only obtain through a fair amount of working out. "Sorry but they called your order and you didn't answer, the shop keeper is my friend and he asked me to bring this to you."

He held out the pink slush drink, pleasantly decorated with a small green umbrella, which she took with an embarrassed thanks and apology. "It was no problem" the man said, "Sorry if I'm being nosy but what's a pretty girl like you doing by yourself and looking so down?"

Lucy sheepishly glanced down at her drink, moving the straw back and forth a bit to stir the contents. She couldn't decide whether to focus on her flattery at the compliment or the sudden defensiveness she felt at having been called out on her minor bout of depression. "Nothing really…just wondering."

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked, taking a seat beside her. It was close enough to be friendly but far enough away to be comfortable.

"I was just…looking at the flowers and the bees."

He blinked and turned his gaze on the flowerbed, which was still teaming with busy activity and life, before raising an inquisitive eyebrow that asked her to elaborate. "I like flowers" Lucy explained, "I was trying to remember what each of these bees were called, I used to know…like one was a honey bee, and one was a bumblebee, all that…"

The stranger smiled and pointed to one of the thinner dull colored bees zipping around in the opposite corner, "That one's a honey bee," he then pointed to one of the fatter, fuzzier bees, "That one's a bumblebee, doesn't look like there are any hornets or wasps but I do see a couple skipper butterflies hopping around there."

He was right; Lucy hadn't even noticed the three caramel colored creatures fluttering from flower to flower. From where she was sitting it looked like they were hopping rather than flying which is why, she supposed, they call them skipper butterflies.

"I thought that butterflies didn't keep their wings unfolded though" Lucy said, pointing to the open wings on the skipper nearest them, which had stopped briefly to take a drink of the nectar.

"I'm actually curious about that myself" the stranger answered, "from what I know butterflies fold their wings together like that but I guess there are exceptions, no moth is going to come out during the day after all."

"Huh" Lucy said, turning to gaze back at the bugs. A semi-awkward silence stretched between them for a few silent moments before the man cleared his throat and she turned back to him only to find his hand stretched out in front of her.

"Sorry for not introducing myself sooner but I'm Xavier."

Lucy smiled softly before taking his hand in hers and giving it a firm shake, "I'm Lucy."

"Pretty name" Xavier replied and this time Lucy flushed.

"Yours is pretty cool too, I haven't met many people named Xavier."

Leaning back on his hands Xavier laughed, "Yea I get that a lot, mostly from my co-workers. They actually introduce me as 'that guy with the weird name' sometimes!"

Lucy laughed along with him, "I have a friend who called me Luigi for like the first two days I knew him."

"Seriously? Like Mario's cousin Luigi?"

"I think he just wasn't paying attention when I told him the first time, pretty sure from then on it was just to tick me off."

"Oh man, that sounds like my friend Matt – he's the guy who asked me to bring you your drink – he like, lives for ticking people off. There was this one time when he walked into a CVS and tried to buy some dollar item with a bag of pennies."

"No way!" Lucy laughed.

Xavier nodded, "I kid you not, and he purposely took like one or two pennies out beforehand then pulled out another bag when the cashier finished counting. That poor guy was so fed up that he just grabbed two from the new bag and stuck it in the one he'd just finished counting. Matt is banned for life from that store now. I'm pretty sure they have his picture up in the staff room and everything."

Lucy was trying to reign in her uncontrolled giggles, almost spewing her smoothie out her nose when she tried to take a sip. Xavier laughed right along with her, eventually proposing that he introduce her to the source of their mirth. She said sure and he led her over to the soda stand.

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Natsu was uneasy.

It had been nearly ten minutes since Lucy had gotten up from her spot lounging at the edge of the beach with Erza and Levy and she had yet to return. Despite the fact that there was probably a logical explanation – long line at the bathroom, snack bar, or wherever she had gone to – Natsu has found that when his partner is involved all those logical explanations get pushed aside for more absurd and borderline asinine possibilities. She could have been kidnapped, she could have been attacked, she could have been injured, she could have been abducted by aliens, any numerous horrors could have befallen her while she wasn't within his line of vision.

With that in mind he excused himself to go get some food, making time to trade a few blows with Gray before heading off down the sidewalk. Despite the insane number of people he could still pick out her scent, a unique blend of vanilla and spring, and followed it to the source. It wasn't long before he came upon Lucy.

The blonde celestial mage was sitting on a bar stool at a small soda shop resting at the very edge of the sphere of booths and food carts. She was laughing happily and occasionally taking a sip of the smoothie sitting in front of her. Normally Natsu would have grinned and rushed over to sling an arm around her shoulder, reveling in the lovely pink that would spread across her cheeks and down her neck, but this time he halted three steps into this routine.

There was a guy sitting next to her, evidently the cause of her laughter. He was good looking and seemed animated as he chatted Lucy up with occasional comments from another brunette guy behind the counter, which sent both the celestial mage and the good-looking stranger into fits of mirth. Natsu's grin dropped into a scowl, jaw setting into place as he began to make his way over with renewed purpose.

"So you're studying to become a scientist?" Natsu heard Lucy ask, "That's so cool! What kind?"

The dark-haired stranger laughed sheepishly and twiddled his thumbs, probably a nervous habit, before answering, "…Biologist...I want to specialize in etemology and botany mostly…"

"No wonder you knew so much about the bees and butterflies" Lucy commented with one of her bright smiles, the kind that could make any male flush to his toes and want to make her smile again. Natsu's jaw clenched tighter as he watched the stranger do just that, which went unnoticed by the blonde as she turned to take another sip of her smoothie.

"He told you about the bees?" the brunette asked.

Lucy nodded, "Yea, there are a couple in that bed of flowers over there and I couldn't remember what they were called."

A shit-eating grin stretched across the brunette's face and he had just opened his mouth to reply when Natsu reached them, slinging an arm over Lucy's shoulders and nearly making her spill the smoothie.

"Hey Luce!" he said happily, grinning widely as he watched the familiar flush spread across her cheeks.

"N-Natsu!" she shrieked indignantly, "What are you doing here!?"

"Came to get a snack, what about you?"

Lucy glanced almost nervously back at Xavier and Matt, who had both raised a quizzical eyebrow at the sudden appearance of her pink-haired companion. She cleared her throat in an attempt to regain a bit of her composure before gesturing to her two new friends. "I came to grab a smoothie and met Xavier, we had a great conversation before he introduced me to Matt" she explained, while gesturing to both boys in turn.

"Oh?" Natsu said in reply.

Lucy didn't seem to notice the edge to his voice as she nodded absentmindedly and continued, "If you're looking for some food there's a shop that sells fire chicken not far away, just make sure to grab a bottle of water too so you don't kill over from dehydration."

"You know I'm not really that hungry anymore" he said abruptly.

Lucy's brows scrunched together and she turned to reply, because Natsu was never not hungry, at the same moment the dragon slayer grabbed her smoothie and slurped what was left of the strawberry slush, which was mostly melted by this point. Predictably Lucy gaped at her teammate for a few silent moments before screaming the standard: _"What the hell do you think you're doing Natsu!?"_

He turned toward her slowly licking his lips with his ever-present grin on his face. She could feel her cheeks heating as she watched. Damn her for finding him so hot!

"I was thirsty" he said simply before standing up straight and dragging her to her feet with him, "Let's go play volleyball with the others!"

Lucy didn't have time to utter a protest before being hauled off by the dragon slayer, though once the initial shock had passed she started shouting numerous complaints just as she usually did. If she had been paying attention she might've caught the dirty look that Natsu threw over his shoulder at the two men still sitting at and behind the counter of the soda shop.

Matt and Xavier sat silently for nearly a full minute after the odd couple disappeared. "Guess she's taken then" Matt finally said.

"I'm not really surprised, she's a keeper that's for sure" Xavier replied.

Matt sighed heavily and grabbed a pair of sodas, sliding one across the table to his friend while he popped the tab on the other. "And after all the trouble I went to so that you could talk to her…"

Xavier's cheeks colored a dusty pink, "All that I said was that she was pretty when you asked I never expected you to shove a smoothie in my face and tell me to go talk to her."

Matt grinned and reached across the counter to pat his friend on the shoulder, "You really need a girlfriend dude and you're too shy to go and talk to them without some kind of incentive. She was perfect for you too, if only she didn't have a boyfriend…"

Xavier snorted but inwardly agreed as he popped the tab off his own drink and took a sip. _'I hope that guy knows just how lucky he is…'_

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"Natsu! Natsu stop!" Lucy shouted as he continued to drag her through numerous crowds of people, shoving them aside instead of simply walking around them. He hadn't responded to her since the soda stand and her aggravation was gradually inching closer and closer to the red end of her tolerance spectrum. She dug her feet into the sand to try and stop him only to stumble and nearly fall.

Natsu managed to swing around and steady her with his hand before she face-planted into the sand, her own palm instinctively coming up to brace against his chest in an attempt to keep her balance. Lucy instantly realized the awkward position and jerked her hand back, Natsu didn't.

"Natsu…?" Lucy questioned, lifting her gaze to meet his deep onyx eyes.

His throat bobbed in a swallow when their eyes met, her face scrunched up in adorable confusion with a petal light touch of pink decorating her cheeks. "What's with that look?" she asked, almost tepidly, "Your acting so strange today Natsu, did you get heat stroke or something? That's why I told you to get something to drink- AND WHAT'S WITH THAT LOOK!?"

The fire dragon slayer had grinned widely when she started babbling, laughing heartily while Lucy screamed and pouted.

"DON'T YOU LAUGH AT ME YOU STUPID LIZARD!" the blonde cried out. She would have jerked out of his hold and given him the Lucy Kick of a lifetime if he hadn't pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She let out a small _'eep!_ ' of surprise as they collided and for one horrifying moment she was sure that she would take a header into the sand.

Instead she remained upright and had to stumble when Natsu jostled her and started walking again, still laughing. The celestial mage could feel the heat on her cheeks and knew that she was blushing, though the realization that Natsu was clothed in only a swimsuit and pressed against her side took all attention off the raging flush she was sporting.

Natsu wasn't entirely certain how his mood had done a 180 in the past three seconds but he chalked it up to Lucy. She always did manage to make everything equally more complicated and easy. For some reason her flushed face and endless chatter had completely alleviated the earlier jealousy that had made him act so 'strange' as she had put it. Ridiculous that she should use that word against him in any case, she was the weird one after all.

"You're such a weirdo Luce" he said.

She had been halfheartedly complaining about his walking speed and how it was making her stumble, asking him repeatedly why he insisted on doing this to her, and pointing out that people were staring when he'd made the comment. This time she did a 180, embarrassment forgotten as she registered what he'd said and hissed back he standard: _"What's that supposed to mean you fire breathing moron!?"_

From prior experience he knew that she would either start yelling at him again or jerk away and smack him with her surprisingly impressive Lucy punch, recently developed after having accidentally flashed a group of guys when giving him a Lucy kick in public. The latter seemed more likely and he grinned, pulling her more forcefully against his side when she tried to move away.

"Let me go Natsu" she growled in warning.

"Don't want to" he replied.

"So help me Mavis if you don't let me go right this instant I'll-"

The words died on her lips when she felt a light pressure against her forehead and glanced up to see Natsu pressing his lips to the skin just a few inches below her hairline. All thoughts evaporated at the contact and all too soon he pulled away with a tentative grin on his face, leaning down to whisper something in her ear before turning and making his way back to the volleyball game that he'd abandoned earlier.

Gray wiggled his eyebrows and said something to Natsu when he approached, which earned him a rather impressive sock to the jaw. Lucy just stood there in a very apparent daze, not noticing that Natsu had left her standing under the shade of a palm tree a mere five feet away from Erza and Levy.

The script mage had one eyebrow raised as she trailed her gaze back and forth between her best friend and the resident fire dragon slayer.

"Did I just see what I think I saw?" she asked.

Erza, still reclined in her chair and without lifting her sunglasses, answered: "Yes, I saw it too."

Levy hummed in acknowledgement, "Did you hear what he said to her?"

A smile pulled at the scarlet knight's lips even as she answered in the negative, which made it pretty obvious to the bookworm that she was lying but didn't press her. She could just drag it out of Lucy later after all.

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" _Invite me to come with you next time, it's always more fun when we hang out together after all."_

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 **THECASTORBEAN**

 **DEMANDS YOU REVIEW**


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